


Endless Forever

by alexdamien



Series: The Age of Gods and Heroes [1]
Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Drama, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:41:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24663241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexdamien/pseuds/alexdamien
Summary: Albafica is dead. So is Minos. And they're both having to stare at eternity at the face and figure out...what now?
Relationships: Griffon Minos/Pisces Albafica
Series: The Age of Gods and Heroes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783195
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CallieParis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallieParis/gifts).



> Written for and with the priceless help of the lovely CallieParis.  
> Callie, how could I ever thank you enough for all the help you've given me? Your encouragement and wise advise have helped me improve so much, I cannot even put it into words.

Dying felt like falling. In fact, Albafica thought, it  _ was _ actually falling into the underworld. He opened his eyes, seeing dark clouds in a gray sky swirl around him as he fell, his long blue hair whirling around him. “Ah, this-“ He crashed into the ground, leaving a crater on the floor below. 

Albafica whined, pain shooting through his body. He felt betrayed. If he was already dead, he should at the very least not feel as much pain as he would while being alive.

“Silence!” commanded a voice in front of him, and Albafica finally opened his eyes. All around him was a dark chamber, with the shadowy forms of different souls surrounding the crater he was in. He jumped to his feet, and noticed he no longer felt any pain from the fall. “Pisces Albafica, you have finally arrived, but I have no time for you. Take him to Cocytus”

Albafica finally looked up, beyond the greater group of spirits, and saw a white haired man before him, sitting at a tall desk. He startled, thinking for a moment that it was Minos, but he blinked a couple times and realized this wasn’t Minos, but  a different man with long white hair. He felt his heart racing and was very confused for a moment.

He set a hand over his beating heart, feeling the warmth of his body under the rough tattered cloth of the old tunic he wore. Completely unlike the clothes he used to wear.

“I…I’m not dead,” he said.

Two specters tried to grab him but he pushed them off, sending them flying off to crash against the walls.

The man stood from his desk, glaring down at Albafica with eyes filled with rage. He produced a wip from within his long sleeves.

“Silence!” he yelled, and tried to hit Albafica with the wip. 

Albafica sprinted out of the way and jumped onto the man’s desk, grabbing his arm and throwing him down on the floor.

“Where am I?!” he demanded. “I thought I had died, but…my heart…It still  beats in my heart …”

The man moved to stand again, smirking at him.

“Ah, yes, isn’t that a magnificent torture?” he said and laughed. Then he lifted the whip again at him.

Albafica realized he would achieve nothing by continuing to fight. He dodged the whip, kneed the man in the stomach and made a run for the door that he saw at far back behind the man’s desk. The door opened before him and led up to a dark staircase. Behind him he could hear the man and the throng of angry souls roaring for him.

He ran faster.

And ran.

And ran.

He stopped. 

Below him the staircase extended into absolute darkness. Above him, the spiral kept going. On and on through the shadows, silent as a tomb.

Around him he felt a strange tension, and he realized he was caught in a trap.

“Who is it?! Do you think you can toy with a golden saint?!” he yelled.

The staircase vanished below his feet and he fell down through the darkness. This fall, too, felt like dying yet again. 

Around him the illusion broke apart, the pieces of the shadows crumbling all around him and he could do nothing more than fall deeper into the darkness. 

He gasped, struggling for breath, when he felt something breaking his fall. A net of some kind. Sudden light hit his eyes and he blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was.

The threads of the net wrapped around his arms and legs, forcing him to descend gracefully into the floor of a room. The sensation terribly, horribly familiar.

“Minos…” he growled through gritted teeth. 

He looked up and saw the underworld judge sitting at a small circular table in a small balcony. 

Minos gave an amused laughter.

“You really got me, uh? How does your victory feel? Was it worth your life?” he asked, and took a sip from his tea cup.

“It was,” said Albafica. “The village is safe. The people still live. I would do it all again, no matter how many times.”

Minos set down his tea cup and looked over at Albafica standing still by the control of his threads. Albafica felt like he could see something different in the judge eyes ' now. As if there was a certain maturity to his eyes that wasn’t there when they fought while alive.

“You really are very pretty,” said Minos after a moment with a smirk.

Albafica growled.

“Now, come here. There’s nothing more to fight about. Would you like some tea?”

“Fuck you,” spat Albafica.

He felt his body moving according to Minos’ will, forcing him to walk towards the table and take the chair next to the judge. He noticed there was another empty chair at the table.

“You can still eat now in death. But whether you’ll feel hunger or not will be determined by your punishment.”

Albafica felt the threads let him go, and could finally move at will. He flexed his fingers and arms, testing his strength. 

“I take it you will be deciding my punishment?” asked Albafica, wanting to know what game Minos was playing now.

“Only if the others don’t agree on it. Lune should have already sent you to Cocytus, but oh well, it was to be expected that he wouldn’t be able to deal with you,” said Minos and grabbed a plate with colorful cookies. He held it up to Albafica. “Here. These are very tasty. Try one.”

Albafica ignored the cookies.

“So what will happen to me now? You’ll send me to Cocytus yourself?” he asked.

A soft smile pulled at Minos lips ' , and he dropped two cookies on Albafica’s plate.

“I should, I should,” said Minos, leaving the plate back on its place. “But it’s getting interesting up there. Ah, that kid Alone is really making a mess of things now. Let’s wait for Aiakos and then we can leave.”

Albafica gritted his teeth, increasingly annoyed at Minos’ casual tone at talking about the other judge.

“Was he also sent to attack the sanctuary?”

Minos leaned back. “It’s all…much more complicated than I expected. Ah, I fear he lost his wing, and he might not be able to recover her soon given the state of her soul. It’s sad, in a way.”

The space above them cracked open. A great gaping maw of pure darkness through which a man fell down behind the empty chair.

“Aiakos, welcome back,” said Minos, serving a cup of tea for Albafica and refilling his own.

The space above them seemed to rearrange on its own, the crack sealing completely. On the floor, the man stayed still for a moment, eyes determinedly closed, his hands clenched into fists. Then he relaxed, and stood up to take the empty seat.

“Has Rhadamanthys  come back already?” he asked.

Minos poured a cup of tea for him too. 

“Not yet. You know how obstinate he is. Of course he would be defeated last,” he said, and handed him the cup.

“Violate…”

“Gone back into the wheels of samsara.”

Aiakos slammed his fist on the table.

“Damn it! Damn it all!” he growled.

Minos took a bite of a cookie. “It’s crazy. This whole holy war has been a disaster,” he said, shaking his head. “Better let go and prepare for the next one. Ah, Rhadamanthys will be back soon, but probably not today. No…not for a few days.”

Aiakos leaned back on his chair, a look of defeat as he looked up at the ceiling.

“But the samsara…it is beyond the will of the gods…,” he whispered, clearly not listening to anything that Minos had said.

Albafica took a deep breath. He had no idea what they were talking about, and he wasn’t about to stay around to play around like some kind of pet for Minos.

He jumped up on the table, crushing a bunch of plates under his feet, and then jumped into the railing of the balcony, making a run for the first escape route he found.

Minos threads’ wrapped around him, holding him up in the air.

“It is late. You should go rest,” said Minos, standing up from the table. Aiakos nodded. “We’ll take our leave. I just wanted to make sure you came back alright.”

“Sure, whatever,” muttered Aiakos, not even bothering to look at Minos or Albafica.

Albafica descended onto the floor of the balcony. A soft fresh breeze shook his hair. He noticed that the air there had a different feel. Cool, yet stifling somehow. 

He tested the binds around him and found that his body was completely out of his control.

“Come, my rose, let’s leave,” said Minos, walking away from the balcony. 

Albafica followed him.

They went out of the central palace, and walked up to another one with great spires surrounding it. 

“It’s all been very chaotic  lately ,” said Minos, opening the door for Albafica. “And things will not return to normal for a while. So for now, please accept my hospitality.”

Albafica gritted his teeth, unable to do anything but enter the palace against his will.

The door slammed shut with a dull sound behind him, telling Albafica that he would most likely not be able to escape through there.

He followed Minos inside, crossing through an empty great hall with a throne on one side. Above the throne was the image of a great bull. Albafica frowned, wondering the reason for that, since that must be Minos’ throne. They walked up a series of staircases until they arrived at a great double door with the image of a bull. It opened before them, leading them into a great bedroom.

“Please take a seat, said Minos, gesturing towards the bed while he walked up to a closet and opened the doors to reveal long tunics like the one he wore in different colors. White, black, gray. Albafica narrowed his eyes, suddenly realizing that there was no color in the palace. Everything was carved in rough stone, all the curtains and cloths a dull gray or off white, so that the whole place gave a sense of aged ruins.

Albafica noticed that he was walking towards the bed and dread rose in his throat. He tried to resist and the threads started cutting into his skin.

Minos turned towards him. 

“What are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself,” he said. “I won’t do anything to you. Ah, I’ve been very brutish, sorry. It was the reincarnation. I end up making…the same mistakes…”

He sighed and grabbed a white tunic and a pair of nice shoes. Then he walked up to Albafica, who sat on the bed, bleeding from the cuts on his arms and legs.

“I don’t understand anything that you’re saying. Be direct! Tell me what you pretend to do with me!” demanded Albafica. 

Minos let the clothes on the table and the shoes on the floor, then he grabbed a clean cloth and a small bowl with water, and started cleaning the wounds on Albafica’s arms.

The pisces saint flinched away from his touch.

“Your blood is no longer poisonous. There’s no reason to pull away. Ah, you’re such an honest man. So forward, no surprise you ended me. The powers of the human heart are always a surprise,” he said. The wounds started closing as soon as Minos cleaned them and Albafica scoffed.

“What do wounds matter anyway?” he asked. “Am I going to die again?”

Minos gave a sad smile and moved to clean the wounds on Albafica's legs ' .

“Of course,” he said. “This is the place of eternal torment. That is why you have been granted an exact copy of your original body. You can die here again and again and never escape.”

“Are you threatening me?” 

Minos shook his head.

“No. Merely warning you. Try not to get hurt,” he said, and went to put the bowl and the cloth away. “As for what I intend to do with you…Well, I would like to keep you for myself.”

He smirked down at the Pisces saint. 

Fury arose in Albafica’s heart.

“I knew it! You pervert!” yelled Albafica, trying to fight against the control to attack him.

Minos laughed. “Now, now, what kind of dirty thoughts are you having? Can’t I just wish for a beautiful rose to brighten up my castle? Come, come. I’ll lead you to your room.”

Albafica stopped struggling and picked up his new clothes and shoes to then follow Minos out of the room. He was led to a smaller room with a door with no decorations. It opened the same as the last door did and he walked into a simple bedroom with a single bed and a dresser.

“Due to war, I won’t have any servants for a while, so we’ll have to make do like this for a while,” said Minos, opening the curtains. Albafica noticed that there shone some thin threads across the opening. Of course, Minos would not be so foolish as to let him run away. “But most things in the castle work well enough on their own, so I trust we won’t have many inconveniences in the meantime. Now, I’ll leave you to rest, my rose.”

Albafica tried to spit in his face, but he couldn’t move until Minos left the room. Once he was away, the control over his body vanished and he relaxed.

He looked around at the simple gray room. Then outside, at the dark stormy skies of the underworld.

He was dead.


	2. Chapter 2

It took Albafica several days of studying the castle to find a way out. He checked every window and door, every nook and cranny, and realized that only the main door and the back door for the servants didn’t have any barriers to cross.

And then. His chance arrived when Minos had to go to his brother’s palace. Rhadamanthys was dead. Finally. Albafica wondered if that was a good thing. But Minos’ words  _ ‘It’s all much more complicated’ _ had buried doubt about everything inside his head. 

“You want to come, my rose?” he asked from the main door.

Albafica went back into his room and slammed the door closed.

“Ah, yes, perhaps it would be best for you to stay. Rhada is so hot headed. I’ll bring you cookies!” called Minos, and Albafica heard the main door close after him with a dull noise.

Immediately, he came out of his room and rushed down the main staircase, passing under the stares of the many bulls engraved on the walls. Past the main hall, until he reached the hallways that led to the kitchen and the servants’ hall. 

There was still no one other than them in the castle, so Albafica didn’t worry about running into anyone. From what he’d heard, the battle was still going on in the living world, even if more and more specters descended back into the underworld every day.

He had to move a bunch of boxes and piled up furniture to reach the small door at the back of the kitchen, but he worked quickly and efficiently, focusing on getting away.

Finally the door was cleared and Albafica could open the door. He found that none of the threads that Minos had set on the other entrances were barring it, and he stepped through, into the back yard that led to open space. 

He waited for a moment, on his guard for any traps or alarms that may spring all of a sudden. But the castle remained as silent and cold as it had been since Albafica had arrived.

After releasing a deep breath, Albafica started walking away from the castle, thinking in his mind about where to go. Minos’ words about how he should have been sent to Cocytus led him to think that if any of his companions were also in the underworld, they must have also been sent there. 

He saw a road up ahead, and ran towards it. The ambience in the underworld felt heavy. As if there was something pressing down all over him that made running exhausting. Despite this, he kept on, using as much of his top speed as he could. Sadly, moving at the speed of light seemed impossible in the underworld, although he wasn’t sure if that was because of that strange heaviness permeating everything, or because of the strange new body he had been given.

After all, this body didn’t seem to feel hunger, and rarely tired or even seemed to need any sleep. Many nights he had spent awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering what would happen when the war end in the living room. Minos had seemed very pessimistic, but somehow…Albafica couldn’t help but think that the underworld losing didn’t necessarily mean that the sanctuary would win.

He kept running and following some of the dilapidated signs that he found around. He got lost a few times, and quickly lost the track of time. 

After passing a river of lava, he found another sign which showed the way to Cocytus, and when he looked out into the distance, he could see a pale expanse far away. A place completely frozen over. 

He kept going, the hope of finding any of his old friends blooming in his chest.

Soon he felt the temperature drop around him, and his feet felt soft snow under the soles of his shoes. The white robe that Minos had given him protected him from the chill, but he still felt the icy kill of the wind against his face. He looked around at the frozen expanse of white all around, noticing the blackened corpses and skeletons around. His hair fluttered in the roaring wind as he took hesitant steps, looking at all the corpses there, searching for any familiar face he could find. And yet, a small fear settled inside him, as he wondered what he would do should he find any of his friends in the same state that most of these corpses were.

He stopped to look at the rows and rows of corpses. That had been his fate. For all his duty and all his sacrifice, he would end up here anyway. They all would end up there. 

He shook his head, wishing to be rid of those thoughts, and focused on looking for his fallen comrades. 

He looked and looked, the tips of his hair and the edge of his robe freezing with the cold. 

But he found them. 

Some of them.

His eyes fell over Manigoldo first and he ran up to him.

“Manigoldo! It’s me! Albafica!” he called, kneeling on the ground to look at his friend who laid on the ground. Most of his body was frozen over, with only his face and his hands free from the ice.

Albafica touched his cold hand, but Manigoldo’s eyes seemed to look through him. Past him.

“Manigoldo?” he asked. “Can you see me? Can you hear me?” 

Only the roaring of the icy wind answered his questions.

Albafica held his hand, frozen and dead. Just as dead as his own.

So this…

This was death.


	3. Chapter 3

Minos found him. Hours later? Days later? Years later?

Albafica could not tell.

“Can you release him?” asked Albafica.

“My rose…,” said Minos with a resigned sigh. Albafica felt like his tone was the same as when he’d said that it was sad, how Aiakos would not be able to see Violate again.

He held on harder to Manigoldo’s hand. In his frozen face, he saw his own fate staring back at him. He saw the futility of his own destiny.

All the power of the sun and the stars that had been bestowed upon them in life. All to end up frozen and dead the same way as anybody else.

In a way, he wished to save himself by saving his friend.

“What do you wish for releasing him? Whatever you want, say it now,” said Albafica.

Minos walked to stand right behind him, and Albafica felt a coat fall over him. He blinked, looking at the black cloth, covered by great brilliant black feathers.

“I can no more release him than let you live again,” said Minos. “Let’s go back.”

“You…you are a god,” said Albafica, who had read some of the books in Minos’ library which detailed his origin, back in the age of the gods and heroes.

Minos gave a low, humorless laugh.

“A half god. I am as bound to the rules of life and death as you,” he said. “And even if I was a true god…He, and all of you comrades have already submitted to their fate. They are in the hands of the wheels of Karma. Once their punishment is completed, they will return to the wheels of samsara. Not even gods can interfere with the nature of reality, with the flow of samsara.”

Albafica hung his head, and didn’t let go of Manigoldo’s hand. He couldn’t save him, and he couldn’t save himself.

And all the powers of the stars and the gods would not be able to change that.

“Then just leave me here, to receive my punishment the same as all the others,” he said.

“My rose, do you think I would have the power to tear you away from the hands of fate?” he said, and Albafica looked up at him to find him smiling. But his eyes…his eyes did not smile. “I may judge and condemn you to remain in Cocytus as a prison, but you would not burn any karma like him. Like the others. You who shunned the world, rejecting all the trappings and attachments of life, have exhausted your karma to return. There is no path back to the land of the living for you.”

Albafica wrapped his hands over Manigoldo’s. Wishing to shield him from the cold.

But he couldn’t even do that.

All he could do was touch his dead cold hand, now that his own body had been released from the constraints of hid poisonous blood.

Minos set a hand over Albafica’s shoulder.

“Let’s go back,” whispered. “There is nothing here for you. They, like all souls, will be released in due time. Even you. Even me.”

Albafica followed him back.


	4. Chapter 4

The servants started coming back slowly. 

One day, Albafica woke up to a knock  on  the door, to find a servant asking if he wished to take breakfast with Lord Minos or in his room.

Albafica rejected both. 

He had not felt any hunger or desire to eat, didn’t want to have to owe anything more to Minos. It was already more than enough having to endure staying at his castle.

More servants came later. Albafica heard their chatter, their hurried steps, their moving of things, up and down over the castle as they changed curtains, swept floors, and cooked the lord meals. 

When Albafica had returned to the castle, he had contented himself with spending his time away by reading Minos’ vast library, enjoying the silence and the solitude which were so familiar to him. But now as he made his way through the bookshelves, he felt like there were too many people around. It annoyed him sometimes. Especially when he caught them looking at him with curiosity

He wondered what they thought of him. If they asked about who he was.

Because, who was he  now ? Was he even the Pisces Saint ? Could he be so, here in the underworld, without his cloth or his duties, or even the poison that used to run through his veins?

It was actually the lack of his poison that made him evade the servants more than he evaded people before. Without it, he felt he had lost his last line of defense. Without it, he felt too vulnerable to even endure being seen by all those strange unknown eyes.

So he turned to sleeping during the “day” and going out only during the “night” when the castle was quiet and most of the servants were away. 

There was no true day or night in the underworld, but the light from the sky had a fresher, redder tone during the day and a cooler, bluish glow during the night. It was a strange thing to get used to for Albafica, and, when he walked through the different yards and barren gardens of the castle, looking up at a sky with no stars, he felt such a deep longing to see the sun, that he sometimes had to stop and hold himself back from crying.

This night, he sat down at an old bench in the central garden. Which was not so much a garden as a barren plot of land where nothing grew and even the earth of the ground felt cold and dead to Albafica.

There, he heard screams of pain.

He jumped  on his feet on instinct, looking for the source of the screams. He followed the sound back inside and to the door that led down to the dungeons. He frowned, since in all his time there, he had not seen Minos take anyone there. 

When he reached the bottom he found soldiers standing behind Minos, who looked at Lune as he whipped a specter that Albafica had never seen.

“Let’s try again,” said Minos with a bored voice, reading a piece of paper he held in his hand. “Who was the infiltrator?”

“I don’t know!” cried the specter.

Lune whipped him again.

“What are you doing to him?” demanded Albafica, stepping through. The soldiers stood before him, blocking his path, but he pushed them aside like nothing.

Minos turned to look at him, and his eyes had that same angry look they’d had during their last battle. But when they fell on him, they turned softer, with their usual unshakable calm that Albafica had grown used to.

“Ah, my rose. Did his screams wake you up?” he asked.

Albafica growled and stepped forward. Other soldiers tried to stop him, but Minos signaled for them to stay away. Only Lune gave him a look of annoyance.

“Lord, this saint should be confined to Cocytus,” he said, his tone haughty.

Minos looked back down at the sheets of paper in his hands.

“What for? He has no karma to purge,” he said, uncaring. Lune gritted his teeth, his annoyance turning to anger. Then Minos looked back to Albafica. “He’s a traitor. Along with others, he tried to smuggle some souls out of the underworld. That is against the laws of the world.”

Albafica looked at the specter’s face and felt that he could see his own despair to escape the underworld in those eyes.

“Must you really hurt him like this?” he asked in a whisper.

“Pain is a necessary part of punishment. And punishment is the power of the law,” said Minos.

Lune lifted the whip again to hurt him, but Albafica caught it on the way down. The whip cut the skin of his bare hand, and Albafica felt it send a jolt of pain through his arm that made him gasp. 

How much time had it passed, that Albafica was surprised at the reminder of what pain was? 

Rage flared up in his chest, and he pulled on the whip to drag Lune towards him, his fist ready to punch him.

“Enough!” yelled Minos, and Albafica felt his body freeze. In front of him, Lune too stopped completely before summoning an attack on him.

Albafica growled in his throat, angered at how easily Minos took control of his body. As if he were nothing more than a simple doll for him. He struggled against the restraints. 

“I said it was enough, Pisces,” said Minos walking up to him. He sounded annoyed and tired. 

Lune, who had already been released  cower ed before his lord, and stepped back, away from them.

“This is cruelty,” growled Albafica.

Minos’ lips curled into a smirk.

“The world is a cruelty, my rose. Now calm down before you hurt yourself,” he said.

Albafica growled again, the sound more animalistic as he grew increasingly angry at his rhetoric.

Minos gave a soft laughter, and reached out to touch Albafica's lips ' .

“Stop this silly fight, or I’ll kiss you,” he warned, so close to Albafica’s face that he could feel his breath against his lips.

Albafica gasped, his fake heart racing in his chest, frozen in place by his shock and not just by Minos’ threads.

Minos took a step back away from him, an amused smile dancing  on his thin lips.

“That’s good. Now, Lune. Take him back to the dungeons of the central castle with the others,” he ordered to his Lieutenant. “And you my rose, come. Let’s take a walk.”

Albafica felt himself released from Minos’ control and gritted his teeth at the way the judge had toyed around with him. 

Yet he followed him out anyway.

After all, what else was there to do? Where else could he go now? For all that Minos could control Albafica’s body at will, there was a greater constraint that wrapped around them both. The constraint of death. Of both their spirits having been expelled from the world.

They were simply, sharing the same confinement in the underworld.

Minos awaited for him at the top of the stairs, holding the door open for Albafica. He then led him to the central garden. 

“A year has passed,” commented Minos, as they walked through barren earth, passing rocks and piles of dirt that Albafica had almost memorized.

“Hmm? A year?” said Albafica with a frown. How could a year have passed? He had kept count…Well, at the beginning at least. Then it had become…too depressing.

Minos nodded, but said no more.

They sat down at the same bench that Albafica had been sitting on before.

“I would like it if you fixed my gardens,” said Minos all of a sudden.

Albafica frowned. “No plants could grow here,” he said, and looked up at the bluish glow of the dark skies. “There is no sun.”

Minos gave a dismissive wave of his hand. 

“That doesn’t matter. There are some that can be made to grow. Different types of roses. Unlike the ones that you are used to, of course, but the similarity should be enough for you to be familiar with them. There are a few books on them in the library.”

Albafica looked at the barren ground of the castle. Along the tall walls encircling them, the images of great bulls engraved on the stone glared down at them.

Albafica thought that it would be nice, so have some vines climbing up those annoying walls and hiding those furious monster eyes from view. He looked sideways at Minos.

“Why do you have so many bulls around? What do they mean?” he asked him.

Minos looked up at the engravings up ahead on the walls, then tilted his head curiously, as if he was seeing them for the first time in a long while.

“Meaning?” he said with a surprised tone. “That’s a good question. What is their meaning?...I would say…They mean that I once tried to keep another beautiful being that belonged to the gods for my own. That my heart has always been weak to beauty, and that the gods have condemned me for it every time.”


	5. Chapter 5

After they had come back from Cocytus, Minos had left open all doors and all windows, and Albafica could come and go as he pleased.

He rarely pleased.

But he did make routine trips back to Cocytus, to check on his old friends who would never be able to know that he was there. Who would never be able to look back at him. Or hear him. Or reply in any way.

In due time, he found them all, and checked back on them routinely.

The first one to fade was Regulus, and Albafica was beyond himself with joy. He went back to each of them. To Kardia, to Degel, to Manigoldo, to tell all of them that it was true. They would be released in due time. That the pain of life would continue, but the despair of hell was but temporary.

“Things will be fine,” he told the silent cold corpse that was left of Manigoldo, placing some of his new flowers on the snow around his head. As close as he could do with so little flowers, and so little of anything else. But he still couldn’t stop smiling. “Your Karma will be purged in due time.”

He stood up, and headed back to the castle, smiling and yearning to receive an answer to his happiness.

He got back to the castle quickly, and noticed Minos having dinner alone at the great dining room beyond the main hall. He took off the black feathers cloak that Minos had given him from that first day at Cocytus, and Minos looked up at him.

“Oh, you’re back already?” he asked. 

Albafica nodded and approached him.

“Is Rhadamanthys gone?” he asked. A servant approached him to take his cloak and Albafica handed it to him. He had also gotten used to their presence, ubiquitous and constant as so many things in the castle.

Minos shrugged. “He never came. He sent that harpy of his to say that he was busy and we would have to have dinner another day,” he said. “You seem quite happy now. You’re even smiling. What happened?”

Albafica’s hand instinctively went up to his lips, which were still curled slightly up into a soft smile. He looked down, and couldn’t help himself.

“Regulus has faded back to the wheels of samsara,” he said, and telling it to someone who could listen made all of his happiness came back to him all over again. “He’ll finally be back to the world he loved so much like his father.”

Minos set his silverware down on the plate and dabbed at his lips with a napkin. 

“Regulus. That was the Leo saint, son of Ilias. Yes, I remember those two. Very little Karmic punishment to purge. No wonder it has taken him less than five years to clear it,” he said.

Albafica nodded. Yes, those two…they’d had such pure hearts. Even their pain and their despair had had a light to them.

Minos picked up his silverware again.

“Well, I personally don’t care, but anything that makes my rose bloom so beautifully is good for me,” he said.

Albafica rolled his eyes at his usual comments about him and turned to leave, when he noticed there was an empty place set next to Minos. The plates of food set before Minos. He noticed what looked like soup, and roasted cuts of meat. 

He still felt no hunger, and hadn’t had a bite to eat since the moment he had died. But the sight of that place, and that elaborate table set tugged at his memories of all those times he had seen others share meals while he kept himself apart. When he kept a safe distance from everybody else.

“Would you like to have dinner with me?” asked Minos suddenly, noticing Albafica’s unwillingness to move, and the way he looked at the table.

“I don’t need to eat,” said Albafica.

“Neither do I.”

Albafica hesitated for just a second more. 

Then he took a seat next to Minos. The scent of the food was delicious, even if he no longer felt anything inside him at the smell. No hunger, no need…

But when he shared dinner with Minos, it felt like the image he’d always had in his mind of how it would feel like to share a meal with other people had finally materialized for him. He finally had one of those things he had rejected all his life.

It felt good.


	6. Chapter 6

Albafica had started to keep a better track of time. He’d had to, ever since he started fixing the gardens in Minos’ castle. The underworld flowers didn’t need sun, but they needed time, and specific watering times, and some needed to be watered by specific types of water. It all made for a bunch of complex needs that allowed Albafica to focus most of his attention on them and forget about the fact that he and most of what he had ever loved was dead.

That was how he noticed that ten years had passed. 

The underworld was back to its usual hum and drum. Souls coming and going. Dying and returning to the cycle of rebirth. The fullness of the forces of Hades were already reorganizing for the next holy war, which would be in about 250 years.

A long time away, even by the standards of death.

Albafica picked up his gardening tools and made his way back inside the castle. He passed by the open door that led to the dining table, where Lune was showing some documents to Minos.

The judge turned to look at the saint when he passed.

“Oh, Albafica, I forgot to tell you. We’ll have a ball tonight. Your clothes should already have been delivered to your room,” said Minos, and then looked back down again at the documents in Lune’s hands.

Albafica frowned. Minos rarely called him by his name. He rarely called him anything other than rose, in fact. And it had been so long of it that the sudden sound of his name coming from the judge’s mouth struck him as somehow rude.

“A ball?” he asked, annoyance seeping into his voice.

“For Rhadamanthys, we do it every ten or so years.”

“And you expect to parade me as your trophy before your brother?”

Minos gave an exasperated sigh. “You don’t have to assist if you don’t want to,” he said, with a tone of finality.

Albafica huffed, turned around, and walked away.

When he arrived at his room, he found an elegant white suit had been laid across his bed. He walked up to it and carefully regarded the intricate golden embroidery down the sleeves and the legs. Against the light of the torches, he could see a soft, very faint embroidery of roses down the chest. A pair of beautiful pristine white gloves and shining black boots were nearby, but his eyes kept returning to the suit.

It was .

Albafica set away his gardening tools and went to wash his hands. 

A ball. So that was why the servants had seemed busier that morning. What a thing! So, these judges had balls and traditions and all the trappings of life without the life. It seemed like some ridiculous joke to Albafica. He looked out his window and saw several chariots with guests starting to arrive. Most dressed in much finer clothes than he’d seen the spectres wear, and he was curious for a moment, staying at the window for a while to look at the fancy suits. 

He had never been invited to a ball. He had never danced. Temptation took hold  of  his heart, and he looked over  to the suit on the bed. He could put it on, only for a night. He was already a prisoner in Minos’ castle. He could simply give up and arrange himself like the pet that Minos wanted, couldn’t he?

No. 

He took the suit and stuffed it in the closet, then went on to have a bath.

He had lost his friends, his cloth, his life and even his body. But he would keep his pride.

The soft bluish light of the nights on the underworld had fallen when Albafica finally came out of his bath, and he could hear the music playing outside his room. Some upbeat tune, pleasing yet foreign to his ears. As he brushed his hair, he wondered how those finely dressed specters would dance among them.

He dressed himself in one of the plain white robes that Minos had given him, and took another look out the window. Many more carriages had arrived, and there was one parked nearby that drew his eyes. Black and as tall as three men, it had an imposing presence over all the others. A specter with long pink hair dressed in a sober black suit stood next to it, chatting with someone else that Albafica didn’t recognize. 

Curiosity picked at Albafica’s mind, and he opened his door just a little. The music sounded like it was coming from the main hall near the entrance. When he saw no one around and most of the torches on the hall unlit, he stepped out, following the music from the floor below. He came out of the hallway  i nto the great winding staircase that oversaw the main hall. He crouched down on the shadows against the railing. 

The dance below seemed coordinated somehow, as couples danced while others looked. He walked down a few steps more, so that he had a better view of the hall, and set himself in a position where he could see Minos sitting  on the great stone throne, Rhadamanthys at his side. Both brothers had bored and annoyed expressions  on their faces. Rhadamanthys’ tinged with a slight anger. 

The dancers smiled and laughter rose from all those invited, but when Albafica looked at Minos, he thought that it wasn’t a pleasant ball at all.

He felt let down. He had always imagined balls to be magical in a way. Moments of pure happiness where people moved so close that hearts raced.

The main doors opened, and Albafica saw Aiakos come inside with his own group, rowdy and much louder than the music. The saint wondered if their arrival would improve the ambience. 

He looked back at Minos, and saw Rhadamanthys angry eyes ' fall upon him. Albafica felt his heart stop. His blood ran cold.

Rhadamanthys turned to say something to Minos, who looked towards where Albafica was still crouched, hidden in the shadows. Their eyes crossed, and the judge gave him an amused smile that lightened his bored expression. 

Minos turned back to his brother and said something that Albafica couldn’t understand, then he waved at Aiakos, welcoming him. 

Albafica breathed again. He had bee n found. Well, it had been embarrassing, but…

Aiakos walked up to the other judges, and Minos laughed at something he said. But Rhadamanthys stood up.

“Are you serious?! You’re just going to keep him?!” he demanded. 

The music died down. The careless chatter faded.

Minos motioned for the musicians to keep  on  playing and stood up, motioning for his brothers to follow him. 

Albafica’s heart started racing. Rhadamanthys had seemed enraged. 

Before he could think it over, he got up from the staircase and ran down the hall, towards one of the servants’ passages that led down to the lower floor. 

Once below, he wondered for a second where they might have gone. Where could Minos have taken them? 

He rushed toward the library, Minos’ favorite place. He could hear the voice of Rhadamanthys yelling over the music from the main hall. He entered through one of the servant’s doors, hiding in a secluded corner of the library, behind a partially empty s helf . At the other end of the library he saw Rhadamanthys and Minos standing in front of each other, with Aiakos trying to mediate between them.

“Come on, it’s nothing,” said Aiakos, trying to placate Rhadamanthys.

“It’s a saint of Athena!” his brother yelled.

“He’s dead,” said Minos with a sigh of exasperation.

“He should be in Cocytus!” 

“What for? His karma won’t bind him there! He is bound to wander the underworld until he fades, so he might as well stay here.”

“He is an enemy! He killed you! But you decided to keep him for his beauty like an idiot. Like you always do!”

Minos bared his teeth at him, an animalistic expression in his face that reminded Albafica of those last moments of life he had, when he had tried to destroy everything around him.

“Silence!” he roared. “Get out of my castle!”

“You bring down the wrath of the gods unto us again and again! Even when the entire world, all men and all gods know of your shame, you don’t care!” yelled Rhadamanthys, waving at the engravings of bulls at the top of the library walls.

Minos lunged at Rhadamanthys, grabbing him by his shirt and punching him in the face.

“Yes! The world knows of my shame! The emperor knows it! And he still placed me above you!” yelled Minos. “And despite it all you will still bow to me!”

Rhadamanthys punched him back, throwing him off against a shelf, books falling all around him. He moved to keep attacking, but Aiakos held him from behind.

“Stop! Stop! This is a useless fight!” he cried, struggling to hold him down.

Minos pushed himself up to his feet.

“Get out of here,” he ordered, his rage barely contained. “Get out of my castle!”


	7. Chapter 7

Only hours later, with everyone gone and the party completely ended, did Albafica come down again into the library, carrying some cloths and a bowl of water. 

Minos sat at one of the couches of the library, leaning back and staring at the dark blue skies through one of the tall windows, a bottle of wine in his hand. He gave Albafica an uncaring look when he appeared in front of him.

“Albafica,” he said with a cold, detached tone, then looked back out the window, and took a swig of the bottle.

There it was again, the same curt tone he  had used when he  had  said Albafica’s name earlier in the day. So, he hadn’t been imagining it. The judge had been in a bad mood ever since.

Albafica hesitated for a moment, then steeled himself and went to sit down next to Minos, wetting one of the white cloths in the water.

“Your hand is bleeding,” he said, and moved to clean the judge’s hand.

Minos didn’t move, and let him do as he pleased.

“It’ll be gone in the morning,” he said.

Albafica looked up at his face. There was a cut on his cheek, and another one on the side of his forehead.

“Rhadamanthys is a brute,” he complained, rinsing the cloth in the bowl of water.

Minos scoffed out a laugh.

“That he is,” he said, and took another swig of the bottle.

They stayed in silence while Albafica finished cleaning his wounds. Minos didn’t make any move to reject him, nor to move closer.

Once done, Albafica put the cloths in the bowl and set it on his lap.

“So it is a shame unto you, then? To keep me here?” he finally asked.

Minos looked at him.

“Hmmm?” 

“Don’t play dumb. I heard what Rhadamanthys said. That keeping me here-“

“It’s not about you…,” interrupted Minos, and sighed. Then he sat up straight in the couch and looked up at the engravings of the bulls above. “You know my story by now, I expect.”

Albafica lowered his eyes.

“The minotaur…,” he whispered.

“It was beautiful,” said Minos, with a humorless laugh, looking down at his fingers. “The bull. They never mention that part. But it really was. So I kept it for myself. I thought I could sacrifice others to Poseidon. I gave him dozens of other bulls. I dyed the beach red with their blood for him. But it wasn’t enough. The gods didn’t want my sacrifices. They wanted me to fail.”

He slammed the bottle against the floor.

“And when I did, they brought down their cruelty on me. That is the will of the gods. To suffer the cruelty of living, again and again,” he said, and stood up. “And when I died they set me up as a judge of the dead. A victim of the weakness of my human heart, I now had to look at the weak hearts of others. To see my own failures echoed again and again. Even this power that they’ve given me. Control. To make marionettes of others the way I’ve been a marionette of the gods. To control, when I wasn’t able to control myself…Rhadamanthys has never forgiven my shame…”

Albafica huffed and stood up to set the bowl of water on a nearby table. 

“And what does he even have to forgive?” he asked, looking at the way Minos’ blood had tinted the water and the cloth. “Aren’t the faults of our hearts for us to bear on our own?”

Minos moved away from the window, and closer to him. Closer than many had ever been to him in life.

He did not pull away.

“I was right. You really are very beautiful,” said Minos in a soft tone.

Albafica rolled his eyes and scoffed, but he couldn’t help his lips to curl up in the smallest smile.

“Idiot. You’re drunk. Come on, go to sleep now,” he said, walking out of the library.

Minos followed him.


	8. Chapter 8

The food at the castle was good, and after that night at the library, Minos’ presence wasn’t so off putting to Albafica, so they settled into a routine of having breakfast every day. Then lunch after Albafica finished working in the garden.

Days passed off, one after the other. Some days passed in a comfortable silence, some in frustration at how slowly the underworld plants grew, and others passed in rants about useless soldiers and bickering brothers. And by the time Albafica realized, fifty years had passed from the moment of his death.

The morning he checked the notes on his notebook and felt a tinge of anger flare up inside him when he wrote the numbers in.

Fifty years. 

Twice as much as he had been alive. Just thinking about it pissed him off, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why.

So he was already in a bad mood when he came down for breakfast that morning, to find Minos sitting at the head of the table reading the usual set of morning reports that Lune sent him. 

“Good morning,” said Minos, giving him a quick glance, then looking back down at the reports.

Albafica grunted in vague acknowledgment as he took his seat. Before him were set a variety of eggs, cheeses, breads, and many other things. Fake food of the dead for the fake bodies of the dead. 

He grabbed a small piece of bread and tore it apart with his hands. This would have to do to pacify his nostalgia now. Now and for the rest of all time.

“Why are you so angry?” asked Minos.

“I’m not angry,” grunted Albafica. 

Minos set down the reports on the table and looked up at Albafica with his usual calm smile. Looking at him, his hair highlighted by the reddish light of the underworld skies…Albafica suddenly realized that perhaps he’d known…

No, he had definitely known. From the moment he had died and remembered all of his past lives and all of his history. He had known how terrible this would be for Albafica, as it had been for him. He had known that the despair would come, sooner or later. That it might not come in five or ten or twenty years.

But it would come in fifty, or in a hundred, or in two hundred.

Albafica threw the pieces of bread on the table.

“Fifty years have passed,” he said and gritted his teeth, clenching his hands into fists. Fifty years of nothing. Fifty years of a useless, constant existence only hoping to see his old comrades fade away from this hell to live again and die again and fade again.

“I see…”

“I hate it,” said Albafica, his eyes filling with tears.

Minos leaned forward, his pale hands on the table moving towards Albafica, but still staying at a distance.

“I know,” he said.

Albafica looked at his slim fingers, a distance away, the same way that the whole world had stayed a safe distance away from him. Still in death, he shunned even the pretense of life. 

“I would like…to be touched,” he said, tears finally falling down his cheeks.

Minos crossed the distance between them and held his hand. His touch was warm. Much warmer than Albafica had expected, and the heat of his hand sent a shiver down Albafica’s back.

So this was what he had shunned away from for so long. This warmth was his sacrifice for the good of so many lives. 

He did not regret it.

But this felt so good, that the longing for it overwhelmed him and he started sobbing.

Minos stood up from his chair, and moved to hold him against his chest in a warm embrace.


	9. Chapter 9

They started touching. 

Holding hands, sitting closer, shoulder against shoulder. It calmed down the longing that tore at Albafica’s heart just a little. Just enough for him to get through a difficult afternoon. Or when finally Manigoldo, the last of his comrades, faded back into the samsara. 

A hundred years passed.

“I thought you would be happy,” said Minos, reading a book in the library couch with him.

Albafica let his head fall against Minos’ shoulder.

“I am. But also…It’s lonely…Now I can’t even look at any of them.

Minos nodded, and lifted his hand to thread his fingers through Albafica’s hair. The Pisces saint shifted closer against him.

“It is lonely. Perhaps it would be good for you to mingle with some of the specters. Rhadamanthys has a lieutenant that you might like to hang out with,” he said.

“Rhadamanthys can go fuck himself.”

Minos laughed. He had a nice laugh, thought Albafica, moving away from him to look at his face. He had a nice face too, whenever it could be seen. 

He pushed some of Minos’ fringe back to reveal more of his eyes. 

“Have you always had this unruly mop?” he asked.

Minos’s smile turned sad, and he moved away form Albafica’s touch, letting his hair fall back down to hide his eyes.

“No. I guess it just started growing and I never cared to cut it other than when it gets unmanageable,” he said, looking back down at his book.

Albafica leaned against the back of the couch, still looking at the way his hair hid his face. He thought of him descending into the underworld that one first time. A soul after a single incarnation full of shame. After men and gods had pointed at him as a coward, a shame, a monster. 

He reached out towards the silvery locks, combing through them.

“You’re so pensive today,” said Minos, turning a page in his book. “What is on your mind?”

“Hmmmm. I think…I want to be kissed…,” he whispered.

Minos closed his book and turned towards him.

“Kissing?” he asked, and set hi s book aside to move closer to Albafica. “My, my, what thoughts have been crossing through your mind, uh?”

He wrapped his arm around Albafica’s waist. The Pisces saint drew in a sharp breath, holding on to Minos’ shoulders, his heart racing on his chest.

“I guess…I just thought you have nice lips,” lied Albafica, his hands shifting up from Minos’ shoulders to wrap around his neck.

Minos gave a breathy laugh. 

“Do I?” he asked, his tongue darting out to lick them.

Albafica’s heart jumped in his chest, and a foreign fire started burning in his stomach.

“Idiot,” he whispered, moving closer. Wanting so much to feel him, yet not daring to cross the distance.

Minos pulled him flush against his chest, and kissed him.

His lips were warm, soft, and the contact sent shivers of anticipation through Albafica’s body and he gasped. 

Minos used the chance to slip his tongue inside Albafica’s mouth.

The pisces saint whimpered in surprise, his hands tangling on Minos’ black robes. The judge’s tongue was hot and wet, and feeling it against his own made him shiver and pull him closer, feeling like his body craved for that exhilarating new type of touch.

A moan escaped him, and he felt himself losing all strength. Minos lowered him down on the couch, still keeping an arm around his waist, his other hand trailing down the side of Albafica’s body.

He pulled away for breath, and looked down at Albafica’s breathless face. He smirked.

“Is this what you were thinking of, my rose?” he asked.

Albafica rolled his eyes and grabbed a lock of his hair, pulling him down for another kiss.

And another.

And another.

To make up for hundreds of years of kisses. 


	10. Chapter 10

Albafica couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t focus, couldn’t eat, couldn’t read. His mind was out of his control and he hated himself for it.

Why had he ever thought that it would be a good idea to kiss Minos? Why?

He had gone a whole lifetime and a hundred years without the touch of another person, but only a few years after allowing himself to be kissed, his body tortured him with the desire for more.

No, he didn’t even want to be kissed anymore. Gradually the feel of Mino’s mouth against him had only left him unfulfilled. It only made him yearn for more and more, and he shunned the judge’s touch, terrified at the fire that it ignited in him.

He spent days pouring over the botany books in the library, searching for anything that would help him quench the fire he felt, but he found only plants that would create the opposite effect. 

He let his fingers trail down a page of ingredients for yet another useless aphrodisiac, that he knew he wouldn’t use, but ended up copying in his journal. No, there was definitely no need for an aphrodisiac here. His own body did all the work without problem.

He closed the book and flipped through his journal. He noticed that it had been a little over 150 years since he had died. 

He hadn’t even noticed when 150 had passed him by.

“Are you still here, flower?” asked Minos from the entrance, startling Albafica.

He slammed shut his journal and whirled to look at him.

“Yes, yes, I was just taking some notes,” he said, walking up to him. “I’ll be going to sleep now.”

Minos nodded and they walked up the staircase towards their bedrooms. 

“I’ll be gone a few days,” said Minos, organizing some papers in his hands. Albafica noticed that they looked like the judgement reports he usually got from the central castle. 

“Did something happen?”

“Rhadamanthys and Aiakos can’t make up their minds about a newly dead soul. His Karma is too mixed, so I’ll give the final verdict. It’s a bit of a complex case, but I think they’re getting hung up over technicalities,” he said, stopping at his door. Albafica stopped with him. “It’ll be interesting, if nothing else. Even if it takes a while.”

He placed a quick kiss over Albafica’s lips. The contact made him draw in a deep breath. His heart started racing again.

“It would be good if you could come, but I’m afraid you would find it terribly dull.”

“Have you spent eternity like this?” asked Albafica, holding on to Minos’ black robe. 

Minos opened the great double doors leading to his bedroom.

“Not all of Eternity. Just as long as stars have existed,” he said, his voice gaining a nostalgic tinge. “A long, long time. Since back in the age of gods and heroes. It was a long, long time ago. The world was different back then. Different, yet somehow the same.”

Albafica made a noise of agreement. After over a hundred years of seeing souls come and go, he had realized that the more humans changed, the more they stayed the same. 

“Is there anything you wish for?” asked Minos, and Albafica realized that he was still holding on to his robe.

He swallowed. Minos would be gone tomorrow, so he wouldn’t be around even for a kiss, as unfulfilling as they were now. The empty days stretched out silent and lovely before Albafica when he thought about it. More days of frustration, each feeling more unfulfilling than the other.

Why was he bringing this upon himself? Why extend his suffering like this?

He moved closer towards him, letting his head fall on his shoulder.

“I would like to be touched,” he whispered.

Minos wrapped his arms around him, then patted his head.

“You can come too if you feel lonely,” he said. “There are extra rooms  in the castle.”

Albafica huffed, and pushed him away. He felt his cheeks burning.

“You idiot!”

“Uh?”

“I want…I want to…,” he started, feeling the words choking him, so he stopped and took a deep breath. “I want…you…to touch me…”

Minos blinked at him, processing his words and the look in his face.

He dropped the papers in his hands, grabbed Albafica by the waist and threw him over his shoulder to carry him into the bedroom.

“What are you doing?!” cried Albafica, as the great double doors slammed closed after them.

Minos threw him on the bed. Then he crawled on top of him. Instinctively, Albafica pulled away, but Minos grabbed his hand to place a kiss on it.

“I’m touching you,” he said with a mischievous smirk. There was a light dancing in his eyes that sent a shiver down Albafica’s body. He felt his body growing hotter at the way Minos looked at him and he retreated, curling in on himself.

Minos lifted an eyebrow at that, sitting down on the bed.

“Hmmm, I’m so excited, but maybe we should go slower,” he said, while trailing his fingers up the exposed skin of Albafica’s leg.

Albafica shivered.

“What do you mean?” he asked, both desire and terror battling inside of him.

Minos laid down on the bed next to him, pulling him closer by the waist so that they were flush against each other. Albafica wrapped his arms around his neck, steeling himself to not move away. But the instincts of a lifetime and 150 years were hard to break, and he still felt nervous and strange.

“I would love to fuck you so hard you scream in pleasure, but-“

Albafica grabbed a hold of his hair and  _ pulled _ .

“You bastard,” he muttered.

Minos laughed and Albafica let go of him. Then the judge kissed him and Albafica relaxed against him. It felt good, kissing like that, pressed against each other, feeling the full heat of his body.

Albafica moaned when he felt Mino s' leg push up his robe to slip between his legs. They separated, breathless and flushed. Minos pushed himself up and started unbuttoning his robe. Albafica swallowed as he saw the expanse of pale skin being revealed. His hands itched to touch, but instead he held his hands close against his chest.

He huffed, angry at his own uncontrollable reactions. More than a prisoner of the underworld, he realized he was a prisoner of his own obsessions and fears.

“You want to stop?” asked Minos, touching the side of Albafica’s face.

The pisces saint leaned into his touch.

“No,” he whispered. “I’m just angry that I want…I want to do this, but at the same time, I can’t…”

Minos gave a low laugh and kissed his cheek, then his neck. He slipped his fingers over Albafica’s chest to start unbuttoning his robe. Albafica grasped at the bedspread to stop himself from moving.

“You look so adorable like this,” said Minos, pushing open the robe to reveal Albafica’s body. “So cute”

Albafica covered his face.

“Stop talking! It’s so embarrassing!” he cried.

“And yet you’re so excited,” said Minos, looking down at the way Albafica’s cock was already half hard.

Unable to take the embarrassment, Albafica curled in on himself.

“It’s so embarrassing! Don’t look!” he cried, feeling stupid and ridiculous to be seen like that.

Minos snickered. 

“Oh, dear, I suppose I’ll have to help you open up,” he said.

Albafica then felt Minos’ threads of control curling around his arms and legs, forcing him to lay on his back and spread his legs. 

“What are you doing?!” cried Albafica, feeling his body yet again out of his control. To his greater embarrassment, he felt his cock hardening at the feeling.

“Helping you. Don’t worry, I promise this will feel good,” said Minos, placing a soft kiss in the middle of his chest.

Albafica’s breath caught up in his throat, his cock so hard it started to hurt. Minos kissed a trail down his body until he reached his belly button and gave it a playful lick. Albafica whimpered and tried to grab him, but his arms were pinned down against the bed by Minos’ control.

“What-? What are you going to do?” he asked, suddenly nervous. Despite how much he wanted it, he realized he had no idea how sex was supposed to go. Much less sex between men.

Minos placed a kiss over Albafica’s hip bone.

“I’m gonna eat you up, my sweet flower,” he said, and kept kissing until he reached Albafica’s cock. “Let’s see how sweet you are.”

Then he wrapped his lips around the head and sucked. Albafica’s eyes rolled back and he moaned, long and loud, arching over the bed. 

Minos took him in deeper, still sucking and stroking the rest and Albafica trashed against his restraints, his hips thrusting up into that wet heat.

“Minos! Ah, Minooosss!” he cried, not even knowing what he was crying for. All he knew was that his body was crying out for more. More heat, more pleasure. He moaned as Minos took him deeper, right to the base, sucking around him.

The judge held his hips, controlling the pace, slowing it then speeding it up in a way that left Albafica begging and crying in pleasure.

Albafica felt a pressure building inside him, overwhelming and unstoppable and terrifying. He closed his eyes, arching over the bed and thrusting into Minos’ mouth, letting the orgasm wash over him as he spilled himself on the judge’s mouth.

Then he collapsed back on the bed, exhausted and spent.

“Whaaa…?” he mumbled, confused.

Minos laughed and caressed his face. “Wasn’t it good, my flower?” he asked.

Albafica felt the tendrils of Minos’ control over him fading and he relaxed even more on the bed.

“Yes…,” he drawled, looking up at Minos’ face. He reached up towards him and pulling him down for a kiss.

Minos let himself be pulled down, kissing his lips, then peppering kisses all over his face, making the saint smile with uncontained joy.

They embraced, and suddenly, Albafica could feel Minos’ hard cock against his hip and he realized that the other hadn’t come. He blushed.

“Uhmm, you…,” he started.

“It’s fine. We have all of eternity,” said Minos.

Albafica frowned, remembering how excited Minos had been at the prospect of having him. He pulled him closer, shifting so he could whisper against his ear, hiding his blushing cheeks among Minos’ silver locks.

“But I’m sick of eternity. I want you now,” he said.

Minos drew in a sharp breath, his hold on Albafica’s waist growing stronger, his fingers leaving marks on Albafica’s skin.

“You have no idea what you do to me, my beautiful rose,” said Minos, his voice taking on a dangerous edge. That sharpness it’d had during their battle, over a hundred years ago. Listening to it reignited the fire of battle inside Albafica. And excitement he hadn’t felt since his death and he bit at the column of Minos’ neck while he spread his legs, letting him in closer.

Minos ground his hips against him. The feel of his hardness against his groin made Albafica’s cock start to harden against, while the judge’s hands roamed the saint’s body, setting his skin alight.

Minos kissed him again, but his kisses lost their softness, gaining a ferocity to them that excited Albafica to respond in kind, suddenly wanting to devour him, and instinct that wanted to consume the judge awakening in him, so strong it both terrified and excited him. He tugged at the judge’s silver hair, forcing his face up to deepen the kisses, making him moan.

“Ah, yes, I knew this was in you,” said Minos, when Albafica’s touch turned aggressive, demanding.

“Idiot,” muttered Albafica. “I just…don’t know how to do it.”

“So this will be your first time? That’s even more exciting,” said Minos, breathless. He waved his hand and a small crystal bottle appeared in his fingers. “This will make it better, but I’ll need you to not move for a moment.”

Having said that, Albafica felt the threads of his control forcing him down on the bed again, arms up and legs spread up in that position that embarrassed him so much.

“You could just say it!” growled Albafica, feeling his whole face turn red at being exposed like that so suddenly.

Minos settled between his legs, letting the contents of the bottle flow down to cover his long slim fingers. He licked his lips at the sight of Albafica.

“But it is so much better to see you like this,” he said, and his hand lowered to give teasing touches to Albafica’s half hard cock. Just enough to make him whine in frustration. Then his fingertips trailed down to his entrance, circling it as his lips turned into a predatory smirk, his eyes looking the same as they had in the middle of battle. Albafica bit his lower lip, hating how hot he found him like that. Hating and loving how hot it felt to fight against the restraints while Minos pressed a finger into his entrance.

Albafica gasped at the intrusion. The sensation so foreign that he flinched.

“The pain will only last a moment,” said Minos, grabbing Albafica’s cock and giving it slow strokes.

“I’m fine,” muttered Albafica, looking away.

Minos gave an amused laugh, his lips still with that predatory smirk that made Albafica’s heart race.

“Those fierce eyes of yours,” he said, and inserted another finger into the pisces saint. Albafica felt his face being forced to look forward, straight  up to  the judge. “A century of hell hasn’t changed them. They’re still as beautiful as that day. How I hated that I couldn’t possess them. That I had to meet you in the middle of battle at the holy war.”

Minos took away his fingers and forced Albafica’s legs open some more. Then he coated his cock with the oil. He took a moment to press a kiss to the center of Albafica’s chest, right over where his fake heart pretended to beat.

Albafica sighed at the feel of those lips over his skin. He felt like he wanted to feel Minos closer, deeper. As if his body knew all the desires that his mind could not comprehend. 

Minos aligned against his entrance, and  _ pushed.  _

Albafica whimpered, feeling his breath get caught in his throat at the feel of Minos inside him. He felt much bigger than he thought he would, hot, hard, and forcing him open in a way that made his eyes roll back.

Minos took a moment for Albafica to get used to the sensation of him being buried to the base inside him.

“Fuck, you’re so hot,” muttered Minos, pushing deeper inside him.

Albafica moaned so loud, he felt like the entire castle could hear him. He tried to cover his face, but Minos forced his hands behind his back.

“No, no, I want to see that beautiful face of yours,” said the judge, pulling out just to push into him again, starting to settle a rhythm and made Albafica’s body grow hotter and hotter. 

“Minos…faster,” drawled Albafica, wanting more. Of what, he didn’t know. But he wanted more. As if his whole body craved something he did not understand.

Minos grabbed a hold of the saint’s hips, lifting him up to drive harder and faster into him.

Albafica then cried out in pleasure when he felt Minos brush against a place inside that shot a wave of pleasure through him.

“Ah! There! That- That felt good!” he cried, trashing against Minos bindings ' as he lost complete control of his body. “Harder! Minos! There!” 

Minos growled, his thrusts losing their rhythm as he chased the pleasure of Albafica’s body.

Pressure mounted inside Albafica and he tensed as his orgasm washed over him and he spilled again. Minos groaned at the feeling of Albafica’s hot body tightening around him and he thrusted inside him a few times more until he spent himself inside the saint.

Minos’ control faded as he collapsed on the bed next to Albafica, and they spent a couple moments regaining their breath, until the judge reached out to caress Albafica’s side. 

“You have the sweetest nectar, my beautiful flower,” he said.

Albafica huffed and rolled his eyes at that. He grabbed Minos’ hand and pulled it away from his body, pinning him down on the bed. 

“I can have an eternity of this, but can’t deal with an eternity of your shitty flower metaphors,” he growled and kissed him hard.

Minos ended up not going to the central palace the next day. 

Or the next.

Or the next…


	11. Chapter 11

After they had made up for most of the time spent dancing around each other, they ended up sleeping together. Even on the nights when they didn’t have sex, which were few and far between.

The years passed by easier like that. Even after all those Albafica had known were gone. The days felt brighter, the nights warmer, and his flowers came to grow green and lush all throughout the castle. Vines crawling over the walls, flowers blooming over the pillars. Their greenery covering the ever watchful images of bulls all over the castle, filling it with the scent of ever blooming flowers.

Albafica still kept count of the years as they passed, but the company of the judge kept the despair at bay for both of them.

And like this, two hundred and fifty years finally passed.

Until one morning, he woke up, and felt lighter. Somehow…diffuse. It lasted only a little while before breakfast, and then he felt the same as always.

He made a note of it in his journal though.

Then, a while later, he felt like that two mornings in a row.

Then three…

And on those days, he dreamed of the stars. Of his stars, the Pisces constellation shining for him in the vault of the heavens. The very stars that had poured their powers into his body in life, making even his soul vibrate with their power. 

He felt the stars calling out to him.

He woke up one morning to the feel of Minos’ fingers caressing his face. He opened his eyes, but he felt so…tired… 

“What is it?” he mumbled, burying himself among the covers.

“You want to have lunch in bed?” asked the judge.

“Lunch? What? What hour is it?”

“How do you feel?”

Albafica rubbed at his eyes and tried to sit up in the bed, but Minos had to help him.

“Sleepy. Fine,” he said with a yawn. “How am I supposed to feel? I’m dead, it’s not like I can get sick.”

And yet he felt something wrong inside him. As if a flame inside him had started dimming slowly.

Minos passed a hand through his hair, giving him the type of smile that hid his concern. Albafica frowned at him.

“You’ve been worried these days, “ he said, motioning for Minos to lay down next to him.

“A lot of things have been happening,” said Minos.

Albafica pouted. “You’re staying nearly all day over at the central castle. You should get some time off, at least.”

“I can’t now,” said Minos, burrowing his face against Albafica’s neck. “Not anymore. Why hadn’t you told me that you hadn’t been feeling well?”

“I’m fine,” said Albafica, wrapping his arms around the judge. His eyes fluttered closed and he leaned against Minos. He felt so tired now, and the music of the stars kept echoing in his head.

Minos sighed, and pulled him closer, holding him in his arms. He kissed the tips of Albafica fingers ' .

“I was hoping you would be able to stay with me. To wait for me until after the battle…,” he said with a sigh.

“So it has come? The holy war?” asked Albafica, forcing his eyes to open again. But it took so much of his strength.

Minos traced the saint’s soft lips with his thumb.

“Yes. Time…It has come for both of us,” he said. “Your goddess…I have never hated her more than now. Why must she rip you away from my side now?”

Albafica gave a sad smile.

“It’s not her. I am only a human soul, how could I remain forever? My stars call me…”

“I hate the stars too. This existence…This universe. I hate it all.”

Albafica kissed him.

“This universe allowed us to meet. Over two centuries are more than most loves can hope for,” he said.

“What do the stars tell you?”

Albafica’s eyes fluttered closed again and he let his head fall against Mino’s shoulder.

“They sing…They make music…I can hear the cloth too. It sings with the same music,” he said. “But you, what will be of you.”

“Reincarnation,” growled Minos. “Another stupid, useless life to fight another stupid, useless war for the gods.”

“Then that’s good. I would be lonely, without you here for a lifetime,” whispered Albafica, a tear falling down his cheek.

Minos pulled him against his chest as the flame of Albafica’s soul faded more and more, his spirit dispersing with the music of the stars.

They stayed together, holding on to each other, until Albafica was gone, the sparks of his soul returning to the stars and the cloth. Until there was nothing more for Minos to hold on to.

And he fell back into the cycle of samsara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first attempt at figuring out a good characterization for Minos and to work out the relationship dynamics between him and Albafica, so any feedback would be very welcome.
> 
> If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving kudos or a comment. It would mean a lot to me!
> 
> You can find me on twitter as @alexdamien  
> For updates on my writing, go to alexdamien.wordpress.com


End file.
